N.J. Democrats Pass Christie’s $33 Billion Spending Plan

June 24 (Bloomberg) -- New Jersey lawmakers approved
Republican Governor Chris Christie’s $33 billion budget, with
Democrats, who had criticized the plan as an election-year sop,
providing the votes for passage.

Democrats, who control both chambers, had initially panned
Christie’s spending plan for fiscal 2014 as one that overlooks
the working poor and unemployed. They passed his budget with few
changes. Christie, 50, and all 120 members face re-election in
November.

The budget is 2.8 percent higher than the 2013 plan and the
biggest since 2008, according to state documents. Senate Budget
Chairman Paul Sarlo, a Democrat from Wood-Ridge, said his party
secured $97.2 million in additional spending that was offset by
a reduction in anticipated health-care costs.

“Nobody should be declaring victory here today,” Sarlo
said. “I always have maintained that revenues are very, very
optimistic, but at the end of the day the treasurer has made it
clear he’s the only one who certifies the revenues. Once he
locked down the $32.9 billion number, we began crafting a
spending plan to match it.”

The budget for the year that starts July 1 passed the
Assembly 52-25 with little debate, after clearing the Senate 29-11. Michael Drewniak, a Christie spokesman, said the governor
won’t sign the measure today, though he’s expected to do so
before the end of the current fiscal year.

Taxes, Opposition

Assembly Majority Leader Louis Greenwald, a Democrat from
Cherry Hill, was among the lawmakers who voted against the
budget, even as he was among a team of Democrats and Republicans
who negotiated its terms with Christie’s administration. While
it was a “better product” than the plan Christie initially
outlined, Greenwald said he disagreed with eliminating almost
$400 million in property-tax rebates.

“I see New Jersey losing its economic and competitive edge
to other states in this country and until we address that head-on we won’t get it back,” Greenwald said in an interview in the
Capitol. “He continually fails to address the No. 1 issue in
New Jersey, which is property taxes,” he said of Christie.

The last time New Jersey’s budget topped $32 billion was in
fiscal 2008, under Democrat Jon Corzine. Christie, the first
Republican elected governor in the Garden State since 1997, took
office in January 2010. The budget has increased every year of
his term amid an economic recovery and rising tax receipts.

Negative Outlook

Standard & Poor’s rates New Jersey’s general-obligation
securities AA-, three steps below top. The New York-based
company has kept a negative outlook on the debt since September
over concerns that revenue may not reach budget forecasts.

Christie was forced to lower the estimates for this fiscal
year by about $500 million after tax collections came in under
budgeted levels. For the 10 months ended April 30, revenue was
0.2 percent higher than revised projections, according to the
state Treasury Department.

The governor’s 2014 budget estimates a 5.2 percent gain in
revenue from the revised target for this year, to reach $32.8
billion, according to William Quinn, a spokesman for Treasurer
Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff.